Its funny to even say this, growing up the daughter of a staunch Baptist man. But, Halloween brings some of my favorite memories.
From the very first year of my birth, we always dressed up for Halloween. I wish I could have my dad guest post the story of my first Halloween. (I’m going to work on that right now!) But, we planned early for our Halloween costumes. And in true Pittman style, we didn’t buy those costumes on an aisle in a superstore. Oh no, we made them.
My grandmother sewed our earliest costumes, and then once I acquired a Singer of my own, these little fingers that I use to type, made costumes. I like think of it as early breeding ground for K Cutie Designs! And, if I’m being honest, everything I sewed back in the day was really a costume, I was just dumb enough to wear it on say my….first day of 7th grade. That should be an idea for a costume….me as a 7th grader…. pink framed glasses with rose tinted lenses, bangs tall enough to compete as a Venus fly trap. An over sized black t-shirt with a panel of sports ball fabric down the left side and culottes in the same coordinating fabric. Seriously the units I wore every other day of school would have been so much better. Such and awkward and terrible stage. I tell myself we all went through it to make it better (and, after attending a wedding rehearsal for most of my friends and seeing those slide shows, I’m convinced I’m not that far off!)
I digress.
Halloween was always a fun time. I actually discovered when trying to make my senior slide show that the only family photos we had growing up, other than the occasion Olan Mills complimentary 8×10 from the church directory, was Halloween night.
(lest you be confused…this is not Halloween)
My mom was always involved in planning the fall festival at our church. And of course you can’t show up to your own party without your party dress on! For us, that typically meant a bear, clown, cowboy, Bob the Tomato or Minnie Mouse costume. (my dad sure was a good sport!) We LOVE to dress up. Still do.
Even now, we talk every year about what my mom, sister and dog (yes dog, she is now part of the theme) are going to dress up as. I’m not so much the dresser-upper on Halloween, typically bc i don’t have any where to go. Who wants to be the creepy 30 year old lady dressed up by herself when the kids come to the door. Creeper!
Halloween now typically means a few friends stopping by with their kids and then I turn off the front door light. (I know..boring..) But, buying the good candy is expensive and I would rather not do yucky candy that to just leave the light on because. However, my new neighborhood has lots of kids so I better get crackin!
Growing up, we didn’t really trick-or treat. We would go to a few houses right by our church where we knew the people and then we would rock the carnival. I loved going up to the fall festival. I loved playing all the games, working a game station with my mom when I got bored and then fight with my dad who was always trying to sneak Snickers out of my bucket!
Oh the bucket! Getting a new “basket” to carry my candy in was almost as important as buying a new lunch box every year (notice the pattern of containers to carry food…insert fat kid joke!) As I grew in maturity in my costumes, I couldn’t just carry a plastic pumpkin with a hole in his head. No, it had to stay with the “theme”. Oh my…how did my parents ever tolerate me!
I do remember however that my dad would barricade our front porch from intruders while we were gone to the church. Those durn hooligans! Part of the Pittman way is to worry about things that need not be worried about. I’m sure his antics were warranted. You know people play big pranks on Halloween to the people who have an empty driveway and no light on out front. So, we would have the biggest scare of the night when we would go bounding up to the door when we finally returned home, only to forget that some random piece of plywood had been roped off to some random finding on our front porch to keep people away from our front door. I mean there were times that said piece of plywood had eggs on it…so I guess he was on to something, but some how “rigging” the front porch from being intruded on will always be part of our evening ritual.
I also remember when my mom would get those fancy orange trash bags for the yard with the jack-o-lantern faces on them. I used to think it was so cool to have a “pumpkin patch” in our front yard. Now, I realized that’s a little game parents play with their kids to get the first fall leaves cleaned up. I cant wait to be a parent and try some of these tricks!
I noticed last night that the kids across the street from me have filled the tree in their front yard with lunch sack ghosts. My mom was always so patient with my desire for craft projects. Whether it was lunch sack ghosts, pumpkins, paper mache pumpkins or the ghosts you make from cheese cloth, Halloween brought the first wave of holiday craft projects around our house.
Clearly all things worked because I have the best memories of those nights.
(oh and these pictures, don’t even begin to compare to the ones I don’t have electronically. And, my mom doenst need to know I posted all these!)
LOVE IT! You are such a good sport. I cannot imagine my family doing this at all.
Your mom sounds like a real trooper! I bet you guys had tons of fun. thanks for sharing
hilarious!